I own an Android phone with a rooted rom that allows flashlight to be used as notification indicator. I set it up only for wake-up alarm.

Yesterday morning I was standing and looking at my phone in the subway and the alarm went off. I realized I snoozed it instead of dismissing it as I woke up. I turned it off immediately.

Then I saw a girl with a disgusted face staring in front of me. Fuck.

She thought I was taking pictures of her and called for help, everyone thought I'm a sick pervert, and called the metro cops at the next station.

I explained to the cops and showed how my phone's notification works, and they let me go. But the girl didn't buy it at all. I apologized anyways but she left as she gave another disgusted face at me without a word.

Some of the people at the scene are commuters whom I regularly see every morning. Now I'm thinking that I'm gonna be marked as a creep forever. And even if I do find each of them and explain, I might look like I'm desperately making excuses. I'm fucked both ways. Fuck.

Blonde girl with a red jacket and a brown messenger bag in downtown LA, if you are a redditor and see this, I'm sorry again and please put me out of this misery.

TL;DR Had flashlight notification for wake-up alarm, it went off in the subway, a girl in front of me called cops on me thinking I was taking pictures of her.

I mean, in my experience it is actually better to go earlier. Why you ask?
Reasons:
1. Less cramped in the morning.

You can go home earlier = Less cramped on the way home, and it’s the time most probably have gotten sweaty, causing them to stink (this can be good if you like being forced to stand behind somebody with you face basically next to their stinky armpit).

Smaller chance of running into somebody you
know. (This one requires you to have a social life).

There are tons more, but I can’t think of any else right now since I’m tired as fuck and probably should sleep now.

Night

Edit:

There is something I want to make clear, I live in Sweden where we have most jobs have something called a flex system (u/Zpik3 explained it nicely but I’ll put it here as well), it is a system that allows you to choose your own hours as long as you put in your 8 work hours each day.

So basically you can come in at 7:00 (7 in the morning) and leave at at 16:00 (4:00 in the afternoon) or if you come in at 10:00 (10 in the morning) you can leave at 19:00 (7 in the afternoon)

Since a lot of you asked what kind of jobs have this system I’m just gonna say this: no idea.
I’m just 16, I don’t have a job with the flex system or one without, but my parents do so I grew up thinking it was standard and I guess I was wrong in it not being normal. So TIL.

Edit 2:

I fixed the times (I accidentally made them 7h shifts and then forgot about lunch).

Edit 3:

Just wanted to add this:
Thanks to u/QuixoticQueen for seeing my stupidity with the times (see edit 2 if you dont understand). :)

So basically you can come in at 7:00 (in the morning) and leave at at 14:00 (2:00 I the afternoon) or if you come in at 10:00 (10:00 in the morning) you can leave at 17:00 (5:00 afternoon)

Why didn’t he just open up his photos app and show the girl that there are no photos of her? There could have been a million ways to prove he didn’t take any photos, especially with a (laugh) Android phone. I guess today in the age of #MeToo any man is a pervert inadvertently by just looking at a woman in public sometimes. There’s no clear line because it’s guilt before proof in how it’s subjectively obfuscated by the movement. Anyway, sorry that happened dude, but you know you did no wrong and fuck anyone who thinks otherwise.

I'm just playing devils advocate here, and I sure as shit don't care about this situation beyond the fleeting, cringy enjoyment I got from reading it but...

The quickest rebuttal to the evidence you would present could very easily be "well yeah, I called the cops right in front of him. Of course he deleted the pics. I mean, look at him!... he's literally masturbating as we speak. Aaand now he's drawing hieroglyphics on the walls made out of his own feces. Why is no one arresting that man?"

Lot's of salary positions allow for this, or if you operate your own business. Research firms usually don't care either. Nor do many financial firms. Really depends on the industry, and your role in the company.

tell 'em to take it up with department of labor and industries. I'm getting paid for the time I work, and if they have a problem with it, let them show me in my contract where I agreed to work for free.

My bathroom has a couple of little heat lamps but the one at work has central heating. And mine's clean! It was more of a comment on how the work bathroom can get into a bit of a state throughout the day.

Where can you leave early if you come in early? I want that job. I have honestly never heard of a job that allows that and it sounds amazing. i would knock out most of my days early.

Eta: I didnt mean to sound as if I didnt believe those jobs existed, just wanted to support that assuming OP had one was probably not a good idea since I have never had, had a friend have, or heard of a job that worked like that, but im sure they are out there. Just not common enough that it would be safe to assume.

I work for a school district too, in the IT department and my job is 8-5 but I come in early and wind up staying past my time most of the time. And worst part is I DONT GET OVERTIME. district is too cheap to dish it out

I pretty much make my own hours or work from home when I want to. I know how lucky I am to be in that position and could never go to another job that didn't allow it. I know this is not how most people have it, so I am thankful everyday.

I just switched to a job like that earlier this year. So long as I do my 8 hours, they don't care when I show up. I had made a comment one day that I "ran late" that morning and my boss actually laughed at me and said "there's no such thing as late".

At my old job, I put in extra hours just because I had a massive workload. I stayed late and even went in on weekends. I never got anything for that extra time. One day, I had to leave 30 minutes early because I had to make it to the veterinarian office to pick something up before they closed. My boss actually told me to make up that time. It didn't matter that I had already worked extra hours that week... He still wanted me to make up that 30 minutes. So, I told him that I already did because I skipped lunch that day and I just left.

It took a while to get used to how relaxed things are at my new job. It was like a weight was lifted off of me. I kept telling my SO to pinch me because the difference was so remarkable that it couldn't be real. I do feel lucky.

There are lots and lots of jobs like that. Anything in the exempt band or salaried could follow under that rule along with professional jobs that don’t rely on customer service for example. After I got my degree and started working as a software engineer it seems like every job around me is like that.

The maxi-flex plan with the Forest Service is like this, as long as you hit your 40 hours, you can work whenever the hell you want within the limitations of your duties. Conversely, you can't work less than 40 hours without using sick or annual leave time.

Most office jobs in Finalnd nowadays have a "flex" system. Where you get to alter your working hours as long as you are in the office between xx-xx. For me its 09.00 - 03.00 which means we can change our workdays one hour in either direction.

Yeah, especially if you have to deal with any traffic. Even with a half hour drive you beat traffic/congestion, always show up on time even when stopping for gas and breakfast plus some chill time before work.
Meanwhile you leave on time and arrive late due to this, that, and other too often, or show up with a little added stress that no one needs.

Dude, if you’re that worried about it, just set your flash alarm to go off while on the subway and make sure you aren’t pointing it at anyone when it goes off. Then swear at your phone and make it look like you’re very annoyed/embarrassed. Do it a few times over a couple weeks and everyone will just think you’re phone is fucked up. Then get a new phone and move to a different country.

Fleshlight alarm... LOL either you just made the most amusing typo of all time, your phone is telling you that you talk about fleshlights a lot, or you have a much different app than the rest of us. :) I'm teasing dear, thank you for making me smile during finals!

Shaving his head might look a little too suspicious. He should wear a big long trenchcoat so that nobody will recognize his clothes, and then put on a nice fedora so that people don't think he's creepy.

Then people will look at him and think "Wait, is that the weirdo guy? Oh no, nevermind he doesn't look creepy at all."

I once was on a train with a guy who had flashlight as his notification. I fucking lost my shit thinking that he was making photos of me so that some goons know who to rob once we get off. I was legit having a panic attack. Fuck whoever made this possible.

Isn't there a term for our inflated sense of importance in strangers lives? Like how if you stumble in public and people see, it could stick with for the whole day or even longer that everyone thinks you're an idiot, despite the fact they all forgot it about it hardly 30 seconds later

Wow, that's good to know. I think I am using Australian English on mine (If there is an option for non US English I normally use that one) but I get the same notification. Also, sometimes it resets my volume back down to below the threshold and I have to go through the notification again to put it back.

For a while the iPhone had a sort of shutter sound when you either turn the screen on or off (not sure which, I've never had enough money to piss away on an Apple product). It took me ages to realise people weren't just constantly snapping surreptitiously.

I used to own a jeep. Thing was great in the snow but a tank otherwise. I traded it in for a Mazda 3. Driving through a city I missed the exit I needed and took the next one and was doing a u turn. The road was fucky (Boston) so there was a median that had pedestrian signals. Long of the short, there were people waiting to cross on the median.

Nice day. Windows down. U turn a jeep wouldn't be able to handle. Mazda turning radius just fine so in my excitement I exclaimed "tight like donky!" as I was turning. And a girl out for a run in spandex got angry and flipped me the bird.

Sorry donky girl, was talking to my car. Took me a few minutes to figure out why she was mad, she had a do not walk and I had a green light and made the turn slowly to watch and make sure, etc.

I used to work with a guy from Turkey who spoke pretty good English but didn't know a lot of slang words for things. One day a few of us went for coffee and he got African red bush tea instead. As soon as he took the cup from the young barista he held it up to his nose, closed his eyes, inhaled, and dreamily said, "Mmmmmm, smells like bush!" The look on her face was priceless.

Ahh, so then they served him rooibos tea? I didn't know that was ever translated as red bush, I usually just see rooibos untranslated on the menu. I thought red bush must be an entirely different tea I hadn't heard about haha.

I think people judge others based on their intentions. They just make the intentions up in their head and if it's someone they are prejudiced against they assume the least generous interpretation possible, which justifies their prejudice.

My serbian father in law, who i worked for a year somehow was told that if you find something you like it is normal to say "I'm hard for that".
Dudes a little crazy and narcissitic so when he first said it i was taken aback but said nothing, heused it in passing like "Yes, you see that building over there, i am very hard for that"

I thought about eventually telling him how terrible he sounds but the dude was so narcissitic that he would've just told me i was wrong, give me a 20 minute motivational speech on life and probably force me to use it ( its a private contracting job so uh...it waas weird as fuck). I thought it was fucking hilarous anyway, decided to just let it continue.
Eventually, we started talking about women ( oh yea you know where this is going) and he's giving me some life lesson ofc ( i've fucked more women then genghis khan, dick lifts more then you, etc) and he goes "You see that women over there, i am hard for her and you should talk to her"

I'm genuinely interested to hear where it's commonly called African red bush. I've only heard and seen rooibos. I'm in the UK and I saw rooibos on a menu the other day but I'd expect here to call it red bush if anywhere did.

Yeah I had my fun with it for a while. My problems are that the thing likes to go fast. I don't know how I haven't been stopped for speeding on the highway. But the bigger issue is that the zippy little thing moves, but my commute is at most 35 mph. So I like to get some zip, and when I can't, I both drive like an ass and get ticked off. So it's also for my own mental health to get rid of it. Love it but I won't be tempted to take corners fast in a taco, or put my foot down on a congested commute in to work.

You kinda get used to it after awhile.
I remember the first day of high school I had to take the subway during rush hour. My dad said he will go with me, I didn't understand why but I was just like, "okay then".
When we got to 96st (the first stop heading downtown on the 1 line where there is the express train), it looked like a war zone. I swear I'm not exaggerating.
The express train rolled up and I was letting everyone going in and people cut in front of me because I figured that was the good thing to do.

Well I missed 3 trains and when the fourth train rolled up my dad pushed me in as hard as he could (almost fell) and he left.

I grew up in russia and my commute to high school was like that every day. At some point you just develop techniques on how to get inside when it looks like there is a solid wall. And then techniques on how to survive when you are part of that wall at the next station, but a huge crowd is going to join in.

Edit: a word

I grew up in russia and my commute to high school was like that every day. At some point you just develop techniques of how to get inside when it looks there is a solid wall. And then techniques on how to survive when you are part of that wall at the next station, but a huge crowd is going to join in.

The MTA in New York often has people on the train acting abnormally, talking to themselves, carrying things that aren't appropriate for the train, making a mess, begging for money, starting random artistic acts, proselytizing etc. After a while you just get used to seeing people doing weird shit or people who are completely fucked up. I've honestly never felt threatened or scared there.

Chicago in the other hand, I am pretty sure that being aware of my surroundings, carefully picking how to move through a crowd, and a bit of luck was what kept some rather large guy, probably on meth, from jumping me between the Red and Blue lines.

If you ride the RTD A line in Denver by comparison, you'd have exactly none of the issues listed above. It's all relative to what city you're in, what part or type of mass transit you're on, when, and where.

I'll make this a fun time for all of you. If you want to see the crazy shit that happens the worst is definitely the 6 train. Just go on youtube and search up "6 train" and combo it with whatever your in the mood for - "6 train fight" "6 train crazy" etc.

Wtf does that even mean. Only subway I've experienced was when I was in Barcelona for 6 months. Craziest thing that's happened to me was some girl trying to get my number cuz she thought I was cute (but since my Spanish is shit and she didn't speak English, I basically had no idea what she was saying)

I take the blue line and red line regularly in L.A. I personally don't think I see crazy shit, but I'm desensitized. I had to pull out my stun gun once in Hollywood on a homeless guy because he wouldn't stop harassing a family of tourists. I forgot what he was saying, but I think he was trying to mug them. I didn't zap him, but he got the message.

Point is, OP will be fine. If I can barely remember an attempted mugging, those people on the train won't remember what transpired today.

The irony is that for some of them, being apologetic and submissive is probably a fetish, so while the women reading their responses are thinking "now here's a gentleman" the guy is furiously jerking off.

Lol. I just got banned from TwoX today in regards to that post of people at school spying on a trans man/person in the bathroom i think it was. All i read was the headline and commented "that's a man baby!'. That's all it takes these days to be banned.

I knew what i said would trigger a response which is why i posted it. Didn't expect an outright ban so soon, was my first time ever commenting on those threads so was hoping to get some back and forth with someone but nope.

you want a back and forth, i'll give you one. think of it from their side. they deal with this shit constantly from little shits who are just seeking attention in their life because they're not getting enough elsewhere.

In my experience with creeps, they'd be more likely to say "What's wrong, baby? I was just admiring the view" or something similarly gross than coming up with a convoluted excuse. This girl just wanted to be the victim here.

I don’t think I’d go as far as to say she just wanted to play victim here, I think she’s probably just being adequately suspicious of other’s intentions in a metro setting. The second glare wasn’t necessary, but I don’t think she was in the wrong for dismissing him and walking away.

Lol, acting like she's ignorant for not believing him instead of looking at it from her perspective of some dude's phone on the subway(Somewhere people expect perverts to lurk) flashing the light used for taking pictures at her repeatedly.

Or that just seems like a get out of jail free card. He can't provide any evidence it was a notification and not him taking a picture, only that it's possible it was a notification. I really like how you want to desperately make her out to be malicious instead of her just going with the most likely scenario for someone's phone pointed at them and its flash going off. Keeping your guard up and assuming someone has bad intentions is way safer than assuming they have good intentions. It's why paranoia is more common than a lack of fear. The punishment for assuming the sound was a wolf in the bushes is that sometimes you're just paranoid and got your spear ready for nothing, the punishment for assuming its nothing means you might get killed by a wolf. It's not being willfully ignorant, she's being smart.

Why are you so hell bent on defending this girl? Is it not possible that she was just in the wrong on this one? You go out of your way to assume things about her in order to view her in the best possible light, but at the same time you support her not doing the same to him and giving him the benefit of the doubt?

Don't won't to sound too "fk womenz" but they have a considerably large ingroup bias. If it's believing another woman or a man in an argument there's a good chance you'll encounter someone like OP (who is a woman)who will blindly believe the woman's side to the grave.

Showing that it's possible its not a wolf. It's like seeing a flash of an awfully doglike tail. But its definitely not enough to prove its not a wolf or a feral dog. I'd still keep my spear out if I can't 100% confirm its friendly.

Well not quite. You can take photos of whoever and whatever as long as you're on private property, BUT you're not allowed to take photos where there would be a "reasonable expectation of privacy". I.e. no pics over a stall door, or into a locker room, etc. Pretty sure this applies to photos up skirts or down shirts or whatever else, but I might be wrong on that. If you just take a photo though of a person in a public place as you see them though, that's totally fine. Be careful though, certain things you might consider to be public are private property, and therefore not "public" according to the law. If you're on private property, you can take any photos of the building from anywhere on public property, but to take any photos inside you (technically) need permission from the proprietor. In practice though, it's more like you're allowed unless they say not to, in which case you have to comply or they can forcibly remove you from the premises.

I have an iPhone X and as I was walking out of a store I was behind a pretty beautiful girl but all I was doing was putting my phone in my other hand and put it in my pocket. But no, I grab the phone and hit both buttons to take a screen shot and it makes the sounds she immediately turns around and I’m just instantly trying to say I took a screen shot but she was so weirded out.

Once I was sitting in a bar reading a book and waiting for my sister. I look up from my book and made eye contact with a girl walking by. She just looks at me and says 'ugh no', as if I was hoping for her to sit down with me. All I could think was how much of a narcissistic bitch she must be.

This is why I love loanwords. While English doesn't have a term for this phenomenon, the French do. They call it l'esprit d'escalier, "the spirit of the stair." That moment when the perfect witty retort comes to you as you're on the stairs leaving a situation/place but it's too late to turn around and enjoy your A HA moment.

Couple days ago 3 girls came up the sidewalk, all i seen was 6 eye balls glaring in my mirror. Looked away and carried in with my phone. Then one of them slapped the back of my vehicle, when they came out the drivers side all 3 were looking in my mirror, which I'm watching to see who comes out that just struck my vehicle. They rolled their eyes too

COUPLE DAYS AGO 3 GIRLS CAME UP THE SIDEWALK, ALL I SEEN WAS 6 EYE BALLS GLARING IN MY MIRROR. LOOKED AWAY AND CARRIED IN WITH MY PHONE. THEN ONE OF THEM SLAPPED THE BACK OF MY VEHICLE, WHEN THEY CAME OUT THE DRIVERS SIDE ALL 3 WERE LOOKING IN MY MIRROR, WHICH I'M WATCHING TO SEE WHO COMES OUT THAT JUST STRUCK MY VEHICLE. THEY ROLLED THEIR EYES TOO

Yeah I really have to agree this woman is a piece of work if she was so convinced that out of everything that could possibly be happening that day she was the focus of your attention! So girl with a handbag get over yourself. I'm really surprised she called the police on you this is well way overboard. I know the feeling of a action that had unforeseen effects that put you in a position like you feel right now. Really the only thing to do is move on. You know you're not a perv and the hell with everybody else. She can't understand that you were using your phone an alarm then it doesn't really matter.

Eh I have unreasonable social anxiety so if I heard someone take a photo my anxiety might take over and assume someone’s going to use it to make fun of me or something. I know deep down no one cares that much but sometimes social anxiety be like that

So this happened to me - I was standing on the train and I hear the camera sound, turn around to a girl giggling, looking at her phone (pointed at me) then looking up at me.
My immediate thought was “well, if you see something you like no probs!”

I did have an awkward moment wondering if I had pen on my face or something though.

My buddy uses it, and its the most annoying shit ever when the phone is face down. However, he uses a clear case (because Rose Gold swag he says) and when the flash is down, the whole case flashes very sleekly when he has a notification as a result lol.

It might be, as the alarm didn't set off the ring nor vibration since I was using the phone unlocked at the time, but only the flashlight went off when the notification appeared on the status bar. I use a modded stock Clock app from a flashable zip file so probably whoever made it didn't think of this instance.

It is extremely useful for people with disabilities.. but if the phone is unlocked and you are actively using it. A flash from the opposite side is useful to nobody including those with disabilities.
IOS doesn’t flash notifications when unlocked. Apparently a hacked android with some hacked app thrown on it flashes always. Good bug for that app.

Maybe they need it for accessibility. My grandmother has a hearing impairment so she uses flash notifications for texts and calls so she knows when someone's trying to contact her. I hope you don't also find wheelchair ramps "god awfully annoying".

I’m confused. Taking pictures in a public space isn’t against the law...why the cops? If it’s public transport they probably have video cameras on 24/7 inside the car also. She should call the cops on them.

The thing is, people ARE taking pictures of you. Daily. Security cameras are almost everywhere. Even in places you wouldn't suspect like street lights.

Edit: A Google search finds that the Massachusetts legislature passed a law which the governor signed to prevent upskirt pictures. It is also illegal in California. A man there got a plea bargain down to disorderly conduct but had to register as a sex offender for life and has been banned from all the places he committed his crimes.

Yeah, being filmed by the NSA, while also uncomfortable, is completely different. If the NSA videotapes me, it's just cause they're the NSA. If somebody takes a video of me, that's for some sort of personal use.

Is that illegal? I mean taking pictures in a public area isn't illegal, and if the subject is showing something sexual it's on them. Still totally creepy but I don't think the cops have any business getting involved unless you escalated.

I was at a festival a few years back, on the second evening around 7pm felt absolutely knackered and thought I'd find a quiet spot for a 15 minute nap to see me through the evenings festivities (FYI I was absolutely sober and t-total, not dressed up in any way etc, just a regular dude) I put my jacket under my head and happily drifted off.

10 minutes later I wake up with a complete stranger lying next to me, like pressing against me, giving "the Fons" thumb salute to his mate who was standing over us taking a picture. As I woke up and was really startled they burst into laughter and ran off. It really freaked me out, I checked my phone, my wallet and everything I had on me. I put it down to drunk people just having a giggle and after a while tried to put it out of my head and lay back and closed my eyes.

Another 10 minutes later EXACTLY THE SAME THING WITH DIFFERENT PEOPLE! This really made me freak out. Like I say, I was 100% clean, but I have never felt so paranoid and freaked out. I had to go back to the tent as I couldn't deal with it and spent the rest of the evening there.

I know some of you will think this was probably my friends spiking me with something given the location etc, but trust me, I know what being high is, it's just that on this particular occasion I had chosen to give things a miss as I had a really big week at work and didn't want to jeopardize things - you can have a good time and a giggle without that stuff.

So it doesn't have to be sexual, and I can honestly say that kind of weird paranoia can make you think really strange things.

Even as a woman, I might be creeped out, sure, but I wouldn't call the cops unless he started following me out or something. Literally nothing is illegal/wrong about a picture. I take sneaky pics of people to send to my bf to laugh at all the time. But you weren't even doing that! Assuage your guilt 😛

Remember when that person live-tweeted the people on the plane who hit it off and left together? I think one of them had to delete their account. Not only gross but causes a lot of harassment (even good intentioned things that go viral)

Not that I condone it but either way you probably put a smile on their face as well as anyone’s they shared it with. People shouldn’t stress about this kind of stuff there’s always a positive lens to look at things through

Wtf is wrong with you people? How insecure do you have to be to think everyone who has a laugh about you is belittling you and acting as if they're superior?

Can you not imagine someone having a laugh about you without thinking lowly of you? Sometimes people have bed hair. Sometimes your shirt is inside out. A harmless laugh without I'll intent and perhaps without your knowledge is just that - harmless.

Edit: grammar

Wtf is wrong with you people? How insecure do you have to be to think everyone who has a laugh about you thinks they're belittling you and acting as if they're superior?

I agree with you but for the people that do mind this kind of thing: why take yourself that seriously? Look at the positive side of things, the funny, odd, or creative way you look might have just brightened someone’s day. No use getting upset at things you can’t control

I consider myself to be extremely laid back guy, would be happy to have pics taken etc, but I have had photos taken of me without asking before and it really made me paranoid and made me feel uncomfortable. I am in no way comparing this to sexual consent, but the rules are the same, you cannot assume everybody is happy with it, and respect their decision.

But consider it from another angle, if someone is wearing something cool and you want to take a picture, what's the problem with taking 2 seconds out, letting them know you think they are wearing something cool and asking permission to take a photo? Imagine how good you would make them feel! And you're getting approval at the same time,

Also, I understand this is in no way on the same level, but in my mind the behavior is related - there was a guy drowning a while back and the kids just stood and filmed it on their phone instead of helping. The psychology of looking at this through your camera phone removes you from the reality in front of you and affects judgement. Bands don't just ask the audience to stop filming on their phones to prevent copyright issues, they're asking for the audience to look at life through their eyes and have an actual emotional response to their performance. It's all related.

U right! All that is spot on but some people are going to be douchebags and that’s just the way it is; it’s normal to feel uncomfortable when someone is doing something to you without your consent. But thinking a picture of you has anything to do with who you are is somewhat shallow if you think about it. An electronic representation of your appearance is just so far removed from who you are that it just isn’t practical to stress about

Well about 90% of Millenials have some sort of mental health problem (including myself), so yup, they probably do have one. I'm not sure what your point is if it's not making fun of a disability. Insecurity is not an issue as I'm not setting off a flash like OP.

There's a large difference between the pervs that just don't give a fuck and blatantly sit there getting off on taking pics and the kind of pics I take where no one even notices. Both for purpose of use and the attention the picture-taking draws.

Why are you asking questions you don't care my answer to? Are you in favor of a federal law stating you may not take pictures in public if there is any chance of a person thinking it was of them? I'd suggest a move to North Korea or Russia, if so.

You miss thr point. Your comment suggests you shouldn't take pictures of people because people don't know your intent. But the potential ramifications of your suggestion are far more than just preventing potential creeps.

Uh. Your pointless questions are stating that your stance is that nobody knows what the purpose of someone taking a picture of them is, so anybody having their picture taken without being asked would be upset (untrue), thus I can only assume you don't think anybody should be taking pictures without permission. And to enforce that, a law would be needed. Where exactly am I losing you?

this thread is so fucking concerning. yall really out here jumping through all these hoops to defend creep shots. not illegal, sure, fine. now go and take pictures of young girls legs on the train because it's so legal and see what happens. fucking morons.

I think it's understandable to call the cops if someone is taking creep shots of you though. There's the law and then there's common sense.

Panty shots are not genital shots. I specifically said panty shots. Even genitalia shots I'm not sure because sources say that upskirt shots aren't illegal because the court found the people to not be actually nude

Which court ruling said that? This law seems to point to upskirts being illegal regardless if it is considered nude or not. I’m not a lawyer so I have no idea how it would work in terms of actually being charged.

— Massachusetts’ highest court ruled Wednesday that it is not illegal to secretly photograph underneath a person’s clothing — a practice known as “upskirting” — prompting one prosecutor to call for a revision of state law.

The high court ruled that the practice did not violate the law because the women who were photographed while riding Boston public transportation were not nude or partially nude." the first link i made, but someone else linked that it is now illegal there, which happened in the same year as that article was posted.

I could be wrong since I'm not an expert on the topic but I've heard about people getting caught and then the police couldn't do anything because it wasn't illegal. This might very between states. And there's not really a difference of an upskirt vs. panties being visible because the person is still in the public even tho one is much more perversive. There's not really a personal space law

It's not illegal in most places in the US. Some places classify as it's still in the public, others say it's still considered clothed. You can Google search the different laws and decisions that were made about them in the US

In case you’re not aware, it’s called law enforcement. Not common sense enforcement. Law is universal, common sense is relative.

As someone who openly carries a handgun daily, people like you are the worst. Calling the cops on someone just because you personally don’t agree with their lawful activity is not only a waste of resources for law enforcement, but just a completely idiotic thing to do.

See what happens? What, someone yells at a stranger? Whatever dude. Nothing of consequence would happen, and if someone tried to get physical over it, that's an easy assault charge and possibly a beating if the person they attack decides to defend themselves.

IIRC so long as you dont have a reasonable expectation of privacy (such as your home, bathroom stall, etc.) you’re shit out of luck legally if someone takes a snap of you. If they take a lot, harassment comes into play, and if they’re trying up skirt shots or some shit then sexual whatever could be brought, but those are very specific cases lol.

Or saying your phone automatically flashes on notifications seems like a really convenient excuse when you're caught. Think about it from her perspective of being on a train and some dude behind her having his flash going off while pointed down at her rear (Assuming OP holds his phone at ~45 degrees, this is worse if he's holding it vertically up at her face.). Until I read that his flashlight could act as a notification indicator, I completely forgot phones had that feature, if I was somewhere as sketchy as a subway and someone's phone was pointing at me and their flash was going off, I'd probably assume they're taking pics of me too.

I proved to the cops that the notification flash is different from camera flash because notification flash blinks rapidly whereas camera flash just lights up for 2 seconds. The girl admitted she saw the blinking lights but didn't buy it still.

Wait are you suggesting that it's not wrong to take pictures of people without their consent, because them "not liking how it makes them feel" shouldn't dictate one's behavior? Or am I misreading something here

what kind of a justification is that? just because she's in places with security cameras means that she should be okay with someone possibly taking creep shots of her? (i know OP wasn't, but i can see why she thought so at first) i assume you go out to public places sometimes too, but i doubt you'd be okay with some rando taking photos of you while you're there either

Yeah srs. Honestly I get someone sneaking a picture of me on a monthly basis, at least. (Mostly because we see a lot of Asian tourist groups and they think a purple haired haired American girl is akin to a fascinating zoo exhibit and they want proof to show Great Aunt Edna back home that Americans are super weird.)

It's totally bonkers that she called the cops. And then got all rude about it. I wonder if we got the whole story, here...? People do be crazy tho.

If it all went down as you said, OP, who cares. She was being a nutter. There's all sorts of reasons a flash gets tripped on a phone, and bystanders would understand that.

You're absolutely right but she should have forgiven OP in light of the evidence he provided. One cannot just think about the many possibilities of end result before doing simple things like checking your phone.

Coming from someone named 'KinkyDungeonMistress' LMAO.. the comments here are great... On the reals tho, (OP), that's a shitty situation. Boy do I know about, one hell of a cooincidence... Glad no charges came of it. Accidents happen. Most likely was forgotten about, like everyone said..

I see nothing here about feminism. I see an explanation of the way a person might have interpreted the scenario. Like, let's change up the situation. Imagine a woman accidentally took a shit on your lap on the subway. She had a sudden burst of awful diarrhea, and as she was running to a corner to try to safely expel her waste, her pants slipped down, and poo shot out onto your lap.

You called the cops, and even after hearing the explanation of the shitter, you didn't believe her.

Later, the shitter posted the story to reddit and asked if there was a chance the person who was shit upon (you) could ever forgive her.

I make a comment... "/u/rootkode has probably never experienced explosive diarrhea like that. Most people haven't. And then there's the fact that you, OP, sprinted in his direction. It would seem from his perspective that you were targeting him with that poop, don't you think? And there are lots of sketchy, crazy people on the subway. It's hard to trust them especially when they have an explanation that seems so farfetched."

Would you, /u/rootkode, consider me to be a men's rights activist (assuming you're a man) as a consequence of my decision to take a guess about why you didn't forgive the shitter?

Nah
If someone is taking a pic of my ass, then they are being a creep. I would assume they are a pervert, even though I don't consider myself cute or sexy at all. It's not about getting over yourself, it's gonna be the main assumption of why anyone would take a picture of your ass/boobs

Hmmm I think I see your point. What if it was someone taking a pic and posting it to r/trashy? I mean obviously he wasn’t taking a pic but now I’m trying to figure out when pics are considered creepy, pervy, or mocking?

Check out OPs comment on one of the threads you made. He showed her that the notification flash is different than camera flash. At that point she is being paranoid over rational. Everything up to that point makes sense (though calling the cops feels weird) but at that point her paranoia is more trouble than rational.

And also because it's 100% legal to take pictures in public, even close up of a single individual. Whether they have any rights if you wanted to publish them is another story (though also probably not). There is no expectation of privacy in public (or public transport). Even filming some girl's panties under their skirt won't get you convicted of privacy invasion. Legally, she is exposing her panties in public towards the floor. Unless they are in a bathroom or dressing room where there is an expectation of privacy. No expectation of privacy really means no privacy, none. But just to clarify, it doesn't mean you can lift someone's skirt. But you can point a camera at anything that is visible from any angle, legally. Doesn't mean people can't get angry at you though.

I was at a mall that is a mezzanine that overlooks the bottom floor. I was leaning against the railing pointing my phone toward the first floor, browsing reddit. A woman came up and gave me the most disgusted look imaginable and I didn’t know why. Then I realized my phone was pointed at a children’s playground on the first floor and it looked like I was recording or photographing it.

That's a bit extreme. In the cases where a phone flashes or makes a camera noise it's at least understandable, but phones have so many functions only an idiot would jump to recording with absolutely no evidence.

My dad was looking for a geocache in a forest next to a playground, but he had to leave early because people were giving him weird looks. The next day there was a note in the paper about a suspicious man loitering near the playground with his phone out. He clipped it and put it up on the fridge.

Pay a homeless man to jerk off on the train, that way everyone will think that’s way creepier than you. Just don’t have your flash go off with the alarm while he’s mid stroke.... BACKFIRED. You’d be creepier than a homeless guy jerking it on a subway.

I have LED flash for notifications and hold my phone with a different posture so it looks like I am always taking a photo of my surroundings. Honestly it seems stupid to assume some guy would spend an entire ride snapping photos of one person in front of them. That is called jumping to conclusions

Idk maybe it’s just because I dated someone who would probably do that but I thought the same when it first happened to me. Especially when you don’t even know flash notifications are a thing. I had no idea flash notifications even existed when it happened to me

I have that flashlight notification on because I’m hearing impaired. I understand why she was upset at first but she should have understood when you explained it to her. I hope there were others around when the metro cops let you go so they know too.

More like, she was in the wrong for thinking the only time the flashlight goes off is when your taking a picture, and even then, would you use the flash to take a pic on the subway? she probably jumped to that conclusion because it meant getting attention.

Also, street/candid photography is legal out in public, just don't do anything stupid, many a photographer has been beaten up by a paranoid, too many people think it's illegal, then really it's not.

On a side note, I've always found the use of a colon ( : ) in this abbreviation to be quite interesting. In the world of the internet and things being as short as they can be, I can't think of any other internet related acceptable abbreviation that incorporates such a grammatical tool?

Would it have become so popular without it? TLDR vs TL:DR? Speaking with a design hat on, it visually it provides a nice balance between the letters.

Interestingly, I've also just noticed the spellchecker has flagged TLDR as incorrect, but TL:DR is fine

Tell them to get over themselves
This is the problem of media outlets printing or publishing whatever the hell they want. Too many morons believe everything they read . A subway station or railway station is a public place. And if you wanted to take a picture, there is absolutely nothing she or the police can do about it. And I would not have felt the need to explain anything to anyone. Just ask the question. So what law was I breaking.

That’s exactly the reason i don’t have flash alerts enabled. I wish it would flash in a different colour than bright white. Maybe red as that would be perceived absurd for illumination in photography but good enough for alerts.

I suppose. It said earlier here it was of the butt, but honestly whatever area they took it of me I would assume it was to make fun of me. Like when I’m in public and people look and point at me and then laugh I’m pretty sure they aren’t checking me out.

I now have a fear of flashing lights, and you only reaffirmed my fear of men. As a result, whenever I see a male photographer working I begin swatting at his camera and yelling rape. You have ruined photography and men for me, which is unfortunate because I have both an Instagram and a dad.

We need to start raising our men better, and remove this toxic masculinity that makes them try to film my chocha while I’m just trying to listen to some Cardi B on the subway.

No. Now if you are selling the pics and if someone could legit say, "Hey that's me" and prove it, you need to get releases but with sketching you can probably get away with no releases since I'm willing to guess the sketches aren't that detailed.

But wow...that was pretty assumptive of her. That was her one and only thought that she was so amazing you HAD to of course be taking her picture?? Even after you and the police explained it to her? she should be the one who’s embarrassed.

IANAL, but...Is it even illegal to take someone’s photo in public? They don’t have any reasonable expectation of privacy, and their photo gets taken literally all the time via tourist photos with you in the background, or CCTV, etc. If she felt threatened she could make the argument of assault or whatever, but it seems like you were just commuting doing your thing, so...even if you did take her pic (which you say you didn’t and I’m not disputing that) I don’t see a problem...

Nope not illegal. I was a news cameraman for 14 years and sat through legal seminars every year. If you're in public, you lose all expectation of privacy. If you're shooting for a program that isn't news like a reality show, you have to get releases signed if you want to show faces.

Some of the people at the scene are commuters whom I regularly see every morning. Now I'm thinking that I'm gonna be marked as a creep forever. And even if I do find each of them and explain, I might look like I'm desperately making excuses. I'm fucked both ways. Fuck.

Now you need to install an app that randomly flashes the light, and let it weave the proper narrative over a few weeks.

A few years ago I was riding the train home on a early hot summer evening. Train was packed because people are getting off of work/school, but I somehow found a seat. One stop way before mine I see some women get on. Being a stupid gentleman I get up to offer my seat to one. I take a spot standing next to the seat that I just gave up and just figure I'll check my phone out for the remainder of the ride. For the next 20 minutes or so I keep sensing this lady staring at me as I'm checking out tumblr, email, whatever site or app just to pass the time. I can honestly see that she keeps looking up at me in my peripheral and it's kinda annoying me at this point cause I gave up my seat to someone who for no good reason keeps staring at me. Finally I look down at this lady to see what the hell her problem is and that's when I notice it. She's wearing a low cut top and she's probably thinking I'm so kind of perv and I'm trying to check out her decolletage. I couldn't get off the train fast enough.

I understand how she mistook what happened, and that it was uncomfortable for her, but what I don't understand is why the police entertained her wasting their time. It isn't illegal to photograph people in public (as long as you're not trying to get pictures up their skirt, obviously).

I'm sure she just wants to be part of the "me too" movement and now lots of men have to walk on eggshells everywhere at all times. If only she just took the two seconds to hear you out and show her no pics of her were on the phone.

Don't worry about it bro. That chick must be so full of herself to think that she's so beautiful that stranger's take pics of her on the subway... she should be fully clothed anyway, there shouldn't be any issue with people taking photos on a crowded train. Who gives a fuck.

Fuck it. You did nothing wrong. Your conscience is clear. They were wrong. People are wrong all the time. Don't let it get to you.

When I was working on a photography project of mine (documenting people travelling, quite interesting actually) when travelling my usual trip from Berlin to the village my uni is, occasionally, i'd have my lumix fz150 with me. Good camera but still fairly small which is a huge advantage! Anyways. While we're (the train with me in it) sitting in a station waiting to depart I notice that girl in the train next to me. She was cute and it was a really interesting shot. I took out my camera and started snapping away. I admit, it felt creepy and looked creepy, but as a photographer... the shot needs to be taken somehow, ay?!
So, while I was snapping away I notice that couple in the window above (double deck train). They look at me in disgust and I immediately knew they caught me. They clarified what they thought of me and my actions through the use of the four middle fingers which were available to them at the time.
Now, I could've put the camera away while thinking "Fuck they caught me being creepy shit" but that wouldn't help me and would just give them the win. Instead I just smiled, waved and started taking pictures of them giving them the thumbs up all smiling when I was done and my train was departing.
Honestly. Don't try to break your mind over thinking it again and again. It happened, you know you weren't being a dick and if they don't believe you... just take pictures of them. (actually, no, don't do that, that's terrible advice...)

Idea: next time snooze your phone again, but nod off with the phone out, when the alarm goes off, let it go for a bit before "waking up" to turn it off, anyone then who remembers the incident will basically get confirmation that you have a alarm like that... bonus if that girl is there too and sees her mistake...

Fuck her (not literally) if she doesn't want to listen to your explanation. Technically it's not even illegal to take pics of people in public (morally reprehensible if you have prurient interests, but not illegal).

Realistically, at the end of the day if this is your biggest worry you're doing pretty good. Who gives a shit what random strangers on the subway think? Do they influence your life at all? Control your destiny? Even know your name? If not, fuck wm for passing judgement without knowing the facts. We live in a world where facts have been rendered irrelevant and it's all about perceptions, let's change it back.

A guy on the subway recorded me for a good 5 minutes and I’ve never felt so creeped out/violated in my life. It’s just the thought of "Oh god what are they gonna do with that footage/photo.” That being said, I understand her reaction but calling the cops is dumb

Even if after explaining she still doesn’t understand just ignore it. You did what you could and you should both laugh out if it. If she’s snob enough to not accept a mistake she doesn’t even worth your time, move along with your life and let it go.

A similar thing happened to me once - I’m a female and was standing in line at a convention with my phone absently in my hand, and I got a hard rap on my shoulder - a nearby girl was sure I was taking photos of her and proceeded to bitch me out. When I told her it was a notification and tried to defend myself, she accused me of being a liar - fortunately the phone went off again in my hand, and she turned about forty shades of red and slithered away.

Honestly, even if you did take a picture, who is getting that bent out of shape of somebody taking a picture of them. You are on camera pretty much everywhere you go anyways, what are cops gonna do? Charge you with annoying someone? I don't know if I'm missing something or what

Easy fix, just set an alarm for when you are supposed to be on the subway. Put the phone in your front pocket and let the flashing go off a couple times before you notice it. Do this a couple times in front of the people you recognize.

I would have just ignored the cops... ain't no law against taking pictures of people in public, unless they're "upskrts" or stupid stuff like that. I'd rather bask in that tub full of false arrest settlement money, myself.

As a teenager I thought the female equivalent of master was mistress. A girl in my class asked me to do something and I jokingly said "yes mistress". Her and 2 other girls looked at me like I was a complete creep and I couldn't for the life of me understand why. Only years later did it finally dawn on me.

I'm sorry but has anyone mentioned that's it's absolutely insane that she called for help and actually involved the police!?!? I mean wtf?? Last I checked you could've done exactly that, taken her picture, and she couldn't do shit, neither could the police.

As many people have already said, don't worry about it. You could scream bloody murder on the subway and the people near you would remember the incident for about a week depending on how interesting their lives are.

Just wondering, has anyone felt the urge to just scream on the subway or the bus for no reason? Just to freak people out? I'm seriously going to do it one of these days.

My dad has this same flashing light notification on his phone, and he gets a notification for using his credit card, so when we’re in the drive through before work the flashing notification from his front pocket makes it look like he’s taking a picture of the cashier. He doesn’t understand what the problem is with it, but I find it a little embarrassing. I’m sure the cashiers deal with weirder shit but it sticks out in my mind

They called the cops? Okay, even if you were taking a picture you weren't doing anything illegal. The laws of photography are that you can take pictures of anything in public including people on subways. What you cannot do is take pictures on private property or in places with a reasonable expectation of privacy such as a restroom.

There was a famous case where a guy intentionally took video looking up a girl's skirt while standing in line somewhere. The courts deemed it a public place where privacy shouldn't be expected so he didn't suffer ant consequences.

Well much like cottage cheese that’s been rolled into a tight ball and then thrown at a window. It has the remnants of the once firm shape and dimpling of the cheese and yet gravity has taken its toll on it.

One time when i was a kid, i was at a public swimming pool. The pool was pretty crowded, it’s hard not to bump into people but if you say excuse me usually you’re fine. Well i began to swim under water and as i was swimming i swam through a relatively narrow opening between two girls a few years older than me. Well my feet as i as swimming went up and hit both of the girl’s butts. They thought it was my hands and went and told my parents, i was grounded for a week after the worst belt spanking i’ve ever received.

lol you actually think those ppl or the cops give a flying fuck? the cops where doing their job, every body else were watching out of morbid curiosity and you wont even see that woman again in your life.

I was clubbing one day when I was younger and I needed to take a piss. I was using the urinal and I talking to a friend on my phone (because he just disappears when he’s drunk, so I was trying to work out where he went).

Anyway, I got a text from someone at the same time I was talking and my phone flashed. All good right? Except I’m in a bathroom and the guy at the urinal next to me thought I took a photo of his junk... almost got the shit kicked out of me. I ended up showing him my photo gallery and the setting to make it flash for notifications. After that he calmed down.

20 year old me was pretty dumb, even worse when I was drunk. Anyway, 7 years later, I haven’t taken a call while at a urinal and I never use the flash-notification feature either.

I've done worse where I actually WAS trying to take a sneaky pic of someone to send to my gf for whatever reason and the flash was on, I didn't realise, flash goes off in a fairly dim lit resteraunt, I panic and basically throw my phone to the floor as if it would help.
Then proceeded to basically die of embarrassment. Although luckily she didn't do much more than give me a look haha.

If thats the only time they ever see the flash go off then yeah, they will probably think you fucked up and forgot to turn the flash off while taking photos. Oh well, fuck em, they are strangers on a train, their opinion of you is irrelevant.

If you are really bother by this and want to change their opinion, have the flash go off a few more times. Just keep snoozing instead of dismissing the alarm. Have it go off when you arent even holding your phone. Eventually people who never talked to you will realize that it wasn't a photo, and their opinions will change without you needing to explain yourself 1000 times.

This isnt meant to be rude but I legitimately dont understand why people do this for a notification. What is wrong with vibrate or volume?

Even on iPhones where it's like a feature... why do you need a strobe light to tell you that you have a notification? I always hated that thing... it's so distracting, also can be dangerous in cars at night.

Again. Not shaming you... I'm the annoying guy that likes to have the taps on when I type because it feels like good feedback. I just never understood this. Vibrate and sound are way better than strobing a light in everyones face I feel like.

Life is unfortunately full of these types of communication breakdowns and 9 times out of 10 trying to explain yourself just makes things worse. Accept that life is unfair and move on and just let people's natural apathy do the work.

Some people just seem to have a high opinion of themselves. Once in the passenger seat of a car I realised a woman walking in front of the CVS we were at was gesticulating at me. Seems I’d been looking in her direction while my mind wandered. Whatever, fuck yourself lady, people have eyes and they go places, I don’t give a shit about your boobs or whatever you thought was happening.

Makes me wonder how many stories of “creeps” are just people thinking they’re so super desirable that people can’t help but leer at them. Which, after enough people go on with stories like that probably increases the chances of others making the same misinterpretation.

Yes, the lady that reported you is completely out of line. But the flashlight notification on phones is incredibly annoying for people that don't need to be notified. Maybe turn it off and you won't have a repeat offense?

Had I seen this happen, I'd think to myself "oh man, he totally got fucked by the flash notification, exactly why I'll never use it, that sucks tho" & I assume anyone who knows about that feature thinks that way..

that being said, the feature doesn't seem to be as commonly known as I'd like & it would be a great excuse for creeps (if the lights hadn't been different)

and she should be flattered in some way at least, I'd feel really really good about myself if someone risked taking a picture of me in public like that, maybe that's why she didn't want to believe you :P

What you should of done is actually start taking pictures after she called you out. It's not illegal and it'd be hilarious as fuck. God I hate people who turn perceived slights against them into huge deals. I usually double down and give them a real reason to complain.

Honestly if anyone has a brain they would know you would be trespassed if your intent was what you assume they think it was. Plus I'm sure most of the people who saw the incident have plenty of their own dirt that is actually real. Also as others have said nobody is going to remember this tomorrow.

How did the cops get involved? Aren't you allowed to take pictures pretty much anywhere? And damn that's narcissistic of the women to think that your taking "her" picture on a crowded train. I hope the rest of your train rides are less eventful

I used to have the light flash notification for texts because sounds used to only audibly play in my headphones if they were connected to Bluetooth and I would take off my headphones and miss messages all the time. Dumb. Anyway. I’m also a woman who puts her phone in her bra and I consistently forgot about this notification setting, so I often had strobe-light titties while in public. People aren’t used to the flash except when taking photos.

I don't believe you because you claimed to use the L.A. subway. I lived outside of L.A. for 5 years and I don't know anyone who used the subway...…. Actually maybe I do, I don't think most people in L.A. know there is a subway, my bad.

Nobody cares, there are so many people on the subway everyday in la it doesn’t matter just shrug it off nobody’s thinking of you being a creep and they most likely forgot about it by now as most people are just thinking of themselves most of the time that’s just your ego talking

Sounds like she couldn’t admit she was wrong since now she’s an ass for blowing it up to the point of getting police involved. She’s highly embarrassed, and by not acknowledging the truth it makes her feel better than foolish. It’s her problem, not yours.

This is absolutely mental. You were standing, wtf she think you were taking a picture of? Her fuckin’ scalp or some shit?

You ain’t fucked up, lad. Your city is what’s fucked up. How do you let someone taking your picture ruin your day, huh? She Amish or somethin’? She worried you’ve ”trapped her soul in your phone”? lmfao! What an absolute mental case!

Should this ever happen again, just respond with “Don’t flatter yourself, miss, it’s just my notification for my alarm.” and show them before they can go about ruin everyone’s day, wasting time for all involved including the metro cops! If people are gonna be a cunts, well then you ought to as well.

You sound so British, my phone just spontaneously produced biscuits and tea. Just popped the hell right out and now i have snacks. Keep talking — maybe I’ll get an old book or a free election or whatever y’all have over there these days.

My deaf wife and friends uses flash notifications since they can't hear the ringtone, I can sort of understand how people are assuming you're taking a picture when the notification flashes while you're holding the phone.

Lol after the cops got the story and had I'd apologized to her a couple times, if she was still acting like I was a creep I'd probably say something like "Does this happen to you a lot, that you assume I was taking a picture? Because I have a hard time believing randoms would want pictures of you."

Though I've been known to say things that get me in trouble. Have been slapped a time or two. Though they were slightly deserved

Oh I can relate! I was in the library after school, using an LG Cookie or something, and my notification sound was a camera shutter sound! I was facing towards older pupils, and they just didn't believe me! Man I was embarrassed!

Go offensive. Next time you see the girl tell her that you're offended and also hurt that she would assume you're a pervert taking pictures and not accept your explanation. For good measure, demand an apology. She's the one who is out of line. Keep your head up. Don't act guilty of something.

Had a situation like this in the past where I was staring at something in the distance (behind this girl) and she said out loud "why are you staring at me, eww." So thinking on my toes I replied "please sweetheart dont be so vain, I definitley wasn't looking at you."

I think if you respond to the situation like you were in the wrong and being apologetic people dont believe you. Sucks this happened to you tho. If you talk to any of the regular riders, next time you should go "did you see the crap I dealt with other day? Some girl was so full of herself that she thought I was taking photos of her."

Why would she call the police? You said she was facing you. So she knew the phone wasn't pointing up under her skirt or something. If anything it'd just be a normal photo from the front. Is it illegal to take photos of people?

I once was using a unisex changing room. As I was taking off my jeans, my phone fell out of my pocket, slid in the floor into the next stall with the camera side face up. My heart started racing. I quickly put my jeans back on, got out of the changing stall, and the person managing that area had my phone. They gave it back to me no problem, but I was really worried that they thought I was this pervert trying to sneak some pics. I immediately left the store after that.

Don't try to explain anything. You did nothing wrong. If they ask about it, laugh it off and explain, otherwise, don't work about what they think. BTW it's not unusual to have lights as notifications. Would she think my wife was taking pictures of her too just because she got a text? Maybe, but who cares. She over reacted, your handled it fine, forget it and move on.

You have my sympathy. Because of a similar issue, I built a custom Tasker based setup that does the same, and is extremely customizable because...Tasker. I'm happy to share it with you. The main difference? I threw in a profile so when my screen is on, it doesn't flash.

Rookie mistake. I have the same thing on my iPhone but for all notifications. The flash only goes off when the screen is locked though. So I just have to be carefully with it when I’m taking it out of my pocket. I usually put my finger over the light when I’m unlocking it.

I hate the flash on my iPhone. I always make sure to turn it off, but it’s somehow always turned to either always on or auto (read: always on) when it’s the most awkward time to have your phone flash at something.

Sometimes people are wrong, and they persist in wanting to believe something that's wrong even when they're shown that they're wrong. These are stupid people and you shouldn't care about their opinion anymore.

Honestly, if i explained myself and i know that what i said was the truth. I wouldn’t give to shits about what they thought after. They can give all the dirty looks they want, i explained myself to you and gave you evidence. I wont bother myself with it anymore.

Yeah OP. I used to have this option enabled too but for an hour then disabled EXACTLY for this reason. I don't commute, but I said to myself I'll be on my phone while in some office or while waiting for my food at some counter then people are going to get the wrong idea. I feel you man.

Sounds like the girl is a little full of herself. Plus, it is perfectly legal to take pictures in public so she was an idiot for calling the cops. Unless of course you were taking pictures up her skirt or something.

Bitches be bitches, it’s her fault for thinking she’s the center of the universe. A TON of phones have those sort of notifications and lets be honest, if you’re gonna take pictures of someone like a creep then you probably are gonna turn off flash. Point is you did nothing wrong and it doesn’t matter what other people think, especially cause their wrong

assuming that everything you said is accurate -- fuck em, nothing to apologize for. you explained what happened and if they don't see it or just don't care to see it, fuck em.

don't cower or hide, don't change your routine, don't justify a damn thing. if you do any of those than you might as well have taken that picture. you didn't and you aren't that type of person, so act like it. they'll see it and respond accordingly and if they don't see it, fuck em. none of them matter anyway.

It’s funny, I was on the other end of a similar situation just yesterday. I got on the train and sat down and I notice all the sudden the lady across from me has a photo flash go off. At first I was like wtf why is she taking pictures of me but then I saw her open the phone and start replying to a message. So I figured out pretty quick that she just had the flash notification turned on. I’m not sure why it was so hard for this lady to figure that out.

Just have your alarm go off every day at the same time. Make sure you are not at an angle to take any pictures of people. Some days let it flash a bit longer before you "notice it" and turn it off. They will all get the pattern.

Well if you guys want to talk about cringe, one time in college I snuck up behind a girl in the library who I thought was my gf, I swear she looked exactly like her from behind, same jacket, same black hair, same height, same backpack. I proceeded to do the hand-over-your-eyes-guess-who game and as you can probably guess, it wasn't my gf. She let out a scream and the dread set in as soon as she turned around. This was in front of the library's front desk plus a bunch of people sitting around in the first floor seating area. So I apologized profusely and tried to explain that I thought she was my gf but the damage was done and I felt the eyes on me, also it didn't help that I was considerably taller than her. That was the last time I did the hand-over-the-eyes-from-behind thing.

Sorry but even if you were taking pictures of her (not that I endorse that), what can the cops do? She’s in a public facility, she’s allowed to be photographed. Anyone in a public facility is allowed to be photographed.

Don’t beat yourself up. She should have realized that if someone wanted to take a photo of her, the person would be more careful. Phones automatically turn off the flash when taking a photo in brightly lit area. But instead of analyzing the situation, she immediately jumped to the conclusion of you being a perv. Her conclusion ruined your day and her day too. Instead, a better conclusion would have been her asking you what were you doing. By then you could have explained what you were doing. There’s nothing really we can do about the type of person she was. It’s just her personality.

This is upsetting to read, and a sad reminder of the excessive paranoia that we’ve allowed to take over our society. The worst part is that even after you were able to prove that you weren’t taking pictures, she still persisted in making false accusations. It’s the sad state of affairs in the U.S.

Who gives a shit fuck the people on the bus if they believe some broad. And fuck that stupid woman. I bet you weren't attractive or not her 'type' thats why she looked at you like some type of creep. Stay away from these creatures they are only trouble.

How can she call the cops on you? Is taking a picture of a fully clothed person on a subway a potential crime? If you’re a photographer and want to take “A View of the A Train at 7:30am” for a collection is that illegal? Or did the cops just agree to speak with you to keep the general peace?

How freaking long of a delay is your snooze set for lmao. You hit snooze on your alarm, got up, got ready, left your place, got on the subway, and then your alarm went off again. That's just two different alarms at that point my dude

You are branded a pervert forever by your fellow commuters. On the plus side, you can as well take pervy pictures of cute girls from now on. What worse can happen? I would start with the blond girl in question.

Blonde girl with a red jacket and a brown messenger bag in downtown LA,

You know OP at the middle of reading this paragraph I thought you would make a plot twist joke and put a link of a nice blonde girl ass... Followed by 'the real LPT is always on the comments' Life pervert tip...

Honestly, I think it serves you right for having that obnoxious setting on. Nothing annoys me more than being triple blinded by someone who has that on sitting across from me. If you don't need it for visual aid turn it off. It's the same for the people who leave their phone on loud despite having there face in it. You can see the notification come up on your phone, the whole world doesn't need to also find out that you got a text.